Princeton will accept 30 from the wait list

Colleges and Universities A-Z Princeton University
1

<p>total of 1,218 students of the 1,791 admitted to the University have chosen to enter the Class of 2011, according to Dean of Admission Janet Rapelye. This represents a yield of 68.0 percent, which is down slightly from last year's 69.2 percent.</p>

<pre><code>Rapelye is not surprised that the yield — the percentage of admitted students who have matriculated — has fallen slightly in light of the lowest admission rate in the history of the University.

"When you are more selective, all of those students have more choices," Rapelye said, "so in some ways, it is surprising that yield only went down by one percent."

Yield can be used to gauge the competitiveness of a University, and it is a factor in the rankings compiled by the U.S. News & World Report.

Harvard has historically had higher yields than Princeton, with a 79.2 percent yield this year; Penn saw a 66 percent yield this year, while Yale has not yet released this year's yield. Last year, Yale witnessed a 71 percent yield.

The number of students who chose Princeton is slightly below the number needed to meet the target class size of 1,245 students. The University will accept about 30 students from the waitlist this year to meet the target, and these students are currently being notified by phone. Last year, no waitlist students were offered spaces
</code></pre>

<p><a href="http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/archives/2007/05/18/news/18499.shtml%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/archives/2007/05/18/news/18499.shtml&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

2

<p>A couple of additional interesting points from the article are that SAT scores have risen and diversity has increased while yield has dropped slightly. It appears that the Class of ’11 will have more engineering students, more international students and more students of color. </p>

<p>So, Class of ’11, you’re smarter, more diverse and more international! (Also, apparently, more of you had multiple offers of admission from the top universities.)</p>

<p>It will be very interesting to see what happens next year when Princeton and Harvard do away with early admission. I would expect to see a huge rise in the number of early applications to Yale and Stanford followed by overall increases in the total number of applications to Princeton and Harvard both of which will have the additional time and resources for recruiting trips.</p>

<p>Harvard, which has long had the highest yield figures, will probably not change much but things will be very unpredictable for Princeton, Yale and Stanford. A large percentage of those applying early to Stanford and Yale will actually have Princeton and/or Harvard as their first choice, making the yield from the early acceptances at Yale and Stanford significantly lower than in previous years. Princeton and Harvard, during their single-round admissions, will not have the benefit of being able easily to identify those for whom either school was a first choice, but their applicant pools will be much more diverse in the absence of early programs. </p>

<p>My prediction is that there will be more use of the waitlist and “likely letters” at all four schools along with a continued increase in diversity (both economic and racial) and internationalization of the student bodies at Princeton and Harvard. (Harvard actually saw a slight drop in the number of U.S. applicants this year which was offset by a significant increase in international applications.) Yale, which also saw a slight drop in yield this year, may push hard for international applications as well. I would expect Stanford to increase its recruiting efforts on the east coast to diversify its student body, nearly half of which currently comes from California, and continue to build on its strong reputation in Pacific Rim countries.</p>

<p>In short, the world will change for the Class of 2012.</p>

3

<p>I agree with you, Ptongrad2000. More applicants, more likely letters, more use of wait list, lower yield.</p>

4

<p>Does anyone know if they've called all 30? Is no call by now basically mean it's over or are they just beginning and taking it slow (i.e. waiting for each few responses before making more offers)?</p>

5

<p>Please clarify the term "likely letters" - is that in advance of applying or after admission? Any explanation would be great. I've heard the term thrown around and don't have an exact handle on its context.</p>

6

<p>Information</a> on likely letters.</p>

7

<p>
[quote]
Yale, which also saw a slight drop in yield this year

[/quote]
</p>

<p>It did? How do you know?</p>

8

<p>Thanks GR Elton. That's what I thought.</p>

9

<p>I hope that Princeton doesn't start to use likely letters too heavily next year to "woo" people that probably normally would have applied ED. I understand the likely letter for a recruited athlete, and I definitely would have loved to get one from Princeton (had they been used for normal applicants), but relying upon them heavily bothers me a bit. At Dartmouth, for example, about a third of applicants get likely letters. I received one, but some of my friends didn't and spent a long time agonizing about it. I know that not receiving a likely letter does not equal rejection, but a lot of my friends felt that way. I just hope Princeton doesn't do the same thing...it's a good practice in theory, but "emotionally" it doesn't play itself out as well, or at least in my opinion.</p>

10

<p>Ernie, you asked about Yale’s matriculation rate this year. </p>

<p>Yale does not report its matriculation statistics in the spring like most other schools. Instead, it waits until the fall and includes students admitted from its wait list in its figures. Last fall Yale reported a matriculation rate of 71.1% for the Class of 2010.</p>

<p>See: ( <a href="http://www.yaledailynews.com/articles/view/17694%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.yaledailynews.com/articles/view/17694&lt;/a> )</p>

<p>Now, for the Class of 2011, the total number of applicants to Yale dropped by about 8.4%, and Yale accepted more applicants than the previous year. This year, Yale reported accepting 1,860 applicants for a 9.6% acceptance rate. However, the school is also shooting for a larger class. The Yale Daily News reports that the hoped for class size this year is 1,340. ( <a href="http://www.yaledailynews.com/articles/view/20475%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.yaledailynews.com/articles/view/20475&lt;/a> ) </p>

<p>The word on the street is that Yale went to its wait list early and accepted even more students from it than it did last year. Let’s assume, however, that this is NOT true and estimate that Yale admitted the same number (i.e. 56) from the wait list this year as it did last year. If that is the case, and if Yale was able to reach its desired class size of 1,340 by admitting just 56 from the wait list, then the numbers would look like this.</p>

<p>1,860 = initially admitted
1,284 = number of those initially admitted who actually enrolled (69.0%)
56 = additional students admitted off the wait list at a 100% matriculation rate
1,916 = total number of those actually offered admission (i.e. 1,860 + 56)
1,340 = assumed actual class size (including deferrals from previous year)
70% = final actual matriculation rate (i.e. 1,340/1,916)</p>

<p>Thus, even if the rumors about Yale’s increased use of the wait list this year are not true and just 56 were taken from it, Yale’s matriculation rate (after the use of the wait list) will have fallen to 70%. The fairer comparison would be with the matriculation rate prior to the use of the wait list (which almost always has a 100% matriculation rate and thus drives up the overall matriculation rate). In that case, Yale’s true matriculation rate this year is probably about 69%. Other schools, including Princeton, that report their matriculation numbers in the spring are reporting this number, that is, the one prior to the use of the wait list. </p>

<p>In summary, Yale’s matriculation rate (as reported by Yale) in recent years has been as follows:</p>

<p>71.3% for Class of 2009
71.1% for the Class of 2010
70% for the Class of 2011 (estimate)</p>

<p>All of these figures include students accepted from the wait list at 100% matriculation.</p>

<p>Please don’t hold me to these numbers. Since Yale doesn’t report its actual numbers until the fall, we won’t really know how many they took from the wait list until then. However, for their yield to have remained the same as last year, they could not have taken more than 25 from the wait list and all reports are that it was many more than this.</p>

<p>If you want the truest numbers, those that are officially reported by each university, you must go to the Common Data Set forms which are typically not prepared for the incoming freshman class until sometime in the early to mid-winter of the year that class enters. You’ll find Yale’s at the following link: <a href="http://www.yale.edu/oir/ComDatset.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.yale.edu/oir/ComDatset.html&lt;/a> If you look closely, you’ll often find that these ‘official’ numbers (i.e. the ones that are used by government agencies and by U.S. News & World Report) are often significantly different from the preliminary or unofficial numbers reported by the institutions earlier in the year. </p>

<p>Princeton and Yale appear both to have dropped by about 1% in their matriculation rates this year. Stanford rose significantly and Harvard’s dropped but by less than 1%. These things vary from year to year so I wouldn’t read too much into any of this. I hope, however, that this answers your question.</p>

11

<p>It does, Ptongrad. Thank you.</p>